


One More Time Around

by RainbowDoom



Series: Let's Rewind and Try it Again [1]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, Canon Time-Travel Fix-it, Gen, Sort Of, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 18:22:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18145784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowDoom/pseuds/RainbowDoom
Summary: Tarvek can fix this. He can fix all of this. He just needs more time, and a test subject.





	One More Time Around

**Author's Note:**

> So, I read Othar's Tweets. Which have very interesting connotations.

There is a world where Barry Heterodyne is less suspicious of his old friend Klaus Wulfenbach. A world where Agatha Heterodyne grows up knowing who she is.

 

This is not that world.

 

There is a world where Klaus Wulfenbach doesn’t convince his son that his best and only friend is just using him. Where Tarvek Sturmvoraus is never thrown off Castle Wulfenbach. 

 

This is not that world.

 

There is a world where Agatha Heterodyne defeats the Other, marries both her consorts and ushers in a new golden age.

 

This is not that world.

 

This is a world where everything goes wrong. In this world the Other won. Europa lies in ruins, destroyed. Nothing remains of a once complex civilization, but empty cities and the wreckages of thousands of wasp engines. In this world Tarvek Sturmvoraus is alone. Alone and desperate to undo the terror around him. He desperately researches the one thing that can save his already destroyed world. Time travel.

 

He finds reports in the wreckage of castle Wulfenbach. First on the Dreen, which he had always suspected to be fourth dimensional. Then he finds other reports. Reports of time windows opening throughout Europa in the year leading up to when he met Agatha. There is one report though that baffles him. In it Bangladesh Dupree reports seeing Gil and Agatha in one of the time windows. In it Gil is wearing Geisterdamen armor and they clearly can see through to the other side.

 

It makes no sense; the incident never occurred. Tarvek would know. Agatha hadn’t interacted with geisterdamen outside of her childhood before she came to Sturmhalten. Which meant it couldn’t have happened before he met her. Then the next time Agatha and Gil were together Tarvek was there too. Then, well then Gil died in Castle Heterodyne and that was when everything went to shit. For a bit it was okay, the Si Vales Valeo and the three of them together and in sync. Then Gil had tried to leave, to go lead the Wulfenbach troops in defense of Mechanicsburg. 

 

Tarvek doesn’t know specifically how Gil dies, but the Castle was a witness and the smoldering pile of ash had been beyond revivification. If they’d ever had time to revive him. The Baron had come back after that with a vengeance. Agatha had sent Tarvek away, the Castle hadn’t had enough power and the Baron couldn’t tolerate the existence of the Storm King. When Agatha had come back it hadn’t been her, but Lucrezia. The Baron was wasped, that was Tarvek’s fault. He’d destroyed the locket, on the orders of the clank Tarvek had built. 

 

Tarvek had tried so hard to be one step ahead of everyone. He’d twisted himself into knots. He’d schemed and lied and tricked. Carefully, cleverly he’d built his house of cards, and not until they fell down did he realize that the table he’d stacked the on had been his trust in Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. Without Gil his plans fell to pieces, and every time he’d helped the bad guys for information for an upper hand had ended being the only plans that bore fruit. In the end Lucrezia believed him to be a loyal vassal. Her precious pet Storm King.

 

He’d killed her in the end, and Agatha along with her. He’d destroyed every last slaver wasp and renvent. Too late to save anyone other than himself. Now he was alone in a wasteland, desperately trying to build a time machine. He’d managed to make windows, the same windows that the Baron had recorded all those years ago. The problem was you couldn't go through them. Not whole, maybe just maybe you could project your mind backwards. Tarvek wasn’t sure it would work.

 

He did a lot of math, and triple checked it all. Tarvek couldn’t afford failures, he had one shot to save the world. He couldn’t risk it on a gamble he wouldn’t know would work. The one thing he had was time, so damn it all he would make sure it worked. He’d thought about finding a time window to where Gil died, to isolate the moment it all went to shit. Tarvek couldn’t bare the idea of it though, he’d already killed Agatha. His nightmares had enough fuel for an eternity alone. 

 

Instead when the hopelessness caught up to Tarvek he opened the window onto happier times. Mostly eight years old and exploring Castle Wulfenbach. Sometimes, the good parts of Castle Heterodyne. Other times Paris. Mostly he finds himself yelling angrily at his nineteen year old self. All that time he could’ve spent with Gil, while he was alive. He spent that time angry and yelling and nursing a betrayal already a decade old. 

 

If he can get this to work, for sure. He’s going back to Paris. He’ll do whatever it takes to convince Gil their on the same side. If they're together Tarvek can keep him alive. So long as Gil is alive the world won’t got to shit. 

 

Tarvek has actual reasons to believe Gil being alive will keep the world safe. Logical ones even. For one so long as Gil’s alive the Baron will keep fighting. He’ll fight the Other, Lucrezia anyone if it’ll keep Gil safe. For another, Gil is a formidable force all on his own. He would fight to save the world, because it’s the right thing to do. He’s a powerful spark with none if the villainous tendencies of other sparks. He’d never even built a death ray before meeting Agatha. If Gil was alive then everything would alright. 

 

The problem was Tarvek had absolutely no solid proof that one could even travel through the time portals. It was still speculation. Unfortunately he didn’t have anyone to test his findings on. Just about when Tarvek was considering risking it all and doing it anyways…

 

Othar Tryggvassen shows up.

 

Because of course  _ he _ would survive the APOCALYPSE!

 

Tarvek ends up crying in front of him. It’s just been so long since he’s seen another person. Othar of course wants to know what happened, and it all ends up coming out of Tarvek in a torrent of emotions and feeling. It pays off though, because Othar agrees to to go back into his past self and try to fix things. 

 

Tarvek doesn’t actually think Othar Tryggvassen is capable of stopping the apocalypse, but he does make a good test subject. The experiment works, Tarvek is able to observe Othar discussing the possibilities of altering his own timeline. Which means it’s his turn. He’ll be going further back than Othar. Tarvek opens the time portal and watches himself head to his first class, the first time he’ll see Gil in years. Tarvek activates his machine.

 

He blinks his eyes open to find himself in a crowd of curious onlookers. A familiar face steps forward and offers him a hand up. Tarvek blinks surprised as he’s hauled up by Gil’s valet of all people. It takes a bit of thinking to remember that this Ardsley Wooster, British spy. 

 

“Are you alright sir” Wooster asks.

 

“Fine, thank you. Just low blood sugar.” Tarvek placates resisting the urge to jump for joy and do a dance.

 

_ It worked! _

 

Wooster frowns in a way that says he thinks Tarvek’s lying, but says instead “Very good, sir.”

 

The crowd disperses disappointed that Tarvek isn’t raving madly. Then from behind them like an angel emerges Gil. Young and alive, he pushes through the crowd.

 

“Wooster! There you are, we’re going to be late.” 

 

Gil comes up behind them and notices Tarvek his mouth drops open in surprise. Tarvek smiles though with total relief. He can do this, he can save the world.

 

“Hello Gil. It’s been a while.”

**Author's Note:**

> So. I don't know if I'll continue this. I might. I do want to write more about Othar's time travel shenanigans. There's so much material in those tweets guys.


End file.
